We Have Plenty of Money

One of my favorite things to say to my children when they were growing up was:

“We have plenty of money!”

The funny thing is, we were never a wealthy family. We were simply a comfortable, ordinary middle-class family.

What I wanted my children to understand was not that money was unlimited. It was that money has a purpose.

Money is useful because it allows us to do certain things: to eat well, have a home, study, travel occasionally, help someone when needed, or simply make an ordinary day a little easier. Once it has served that purpose, I do not see much value in spending an entire life accumulating more of it.

I did not want my children to grow up feeling that they were always lacking something.

If they had enough to do what they genuinely wanted to do, I wanted them to feel that they already had enough.

There is a subtle difference between earning money to live and living in order to accumulate money.

The first can give life freedom.

The second can quietly consume it.

Of course, I wanted my children to work hard, be responsible, and understand the value of money. But I also wanted them to know that money is a tool, not a destination.

Perhaps that is why “We have plenty of money!” became a kind of family joke.

It was never a statement about our bank account.

It was a statement about our attitude toward life:

We have enough. Now let us get on with living.

Looking back, I think this was another small piece of my own Peace of Mind Project—not an artistic project this time, but a parenting one.

Sometimes peace of mind begins simply by knowing when enough is enough.